Sanction state lawmaker who tried to prosecute Dewine, Ohio AG Yost says
COLUMBUS – Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked an appeals court to sanction Clermont County Rep. John Becker for wasting time trying to prosecute Gov. Mike Dewine.
Becker, R-union Township, initially tried to impeach Dewine over his response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Then, Becker tried to prosecute Dewine for terrorism and other offenses, but Clermont County Prosecutor Vincent Faris declined to move forward with charges.
Becker says Faris didn’t adequately investigate his private citizen affidavit against Dewine and asked the 12th District Court of Appeals to force Faris to look into the claims.
On Thursday, Yost, who is also a Republican, stepped in. He asked the appeals court to reject Becker’s case and go one step further: Sanction Becker.
Yost, in a legal brief, said Becker should pay attorney’s fees to Faris or be ordered to spend a day observing criminal trials in open court “so that he can better understand the gravity of the matters for which prosecutorial and judicial resources must be preserved.”
Put simply: Becker wasted Faris’ time.
“Imagine, for example, that a citizen had filed a complaint stating that Governor Dewine, during the last full moon, turned to a werewolf and held up a liquor store,” Yost wrote. “These allegations are facially frivolous, and the only responsible ‘investigation’ would consist of reading the allegations and ignoring them. The same logic supports the prosecutorial decision here.”
But Becker said Yost was overstepping, and sanctions weren’t even a legal option in this scenario. “The people of Ohio are not going to be intimidated by a Dewine puppet who has visions of werewolves,” Becker told The Enquirer.
Yost argued that Becker’s complaints against Dewine – that the Republican governor violated numerous criminal laws while doing his job – were “frivolous on their face, whatever one may think of the Governor’s policy decisions.”
Becker has opposed Dewine’s orders closing businesses, schools and polling locations. Many of those restrictions have since been lifted.
Becker has encouraged other Ohioans to file criminal complaints against Dewine as well.
“I’m leading the charge. There’s a lot of people statewide that are wanting Dewine to go away because of his dictatorial role,” Becker said. “Their lives and livelihoods for many of them have been destroyed. Many will not recover because of it.”
Yost said that Ohio’s constitutional system is designed to “prevent the merely unpopular from being criminalized.”
“It is therefore troubling when an elected representative, even one acting in his personal capacity, wastes prosecutorial and judicial resources on a frivolous political stunt,” Yost wrote. “That is exactly what Becker has done.”
Becker said he wouldn’t be intimidated. “My response is bring it on. I’m going to fight for the people.”